Automobiles, trailers and other vehicles increasingly employ running lights on their exteriors to increase road awareness and their inherent aesthetic value. Running lights are conventionally connected in circuit with a switch on the interior of the vehicle that is under the control of the driver. Running lights, also called clearance or marker lights on all types of vehicles and trailers, are conventionally illuminated whenever a driver activates the headlight switch to illuminate the parking lights and/or the headlights.
More particularly, running lights are lights located on the exterior sides of a vehicle that, in addition to parking lights conventionally located at the corners of the vehicle, illuminate when a headlight switch is activated, wherein that activation of the headlight switch includes a setting where the parking/running lights are on, but the headlights remain off. Parking and running lights may additionally illuminate when the headlight switch is in a second position corresponding to the headlights being on, as well. Thus a running light may include a light located along an exterior side of a vehicle that is configured to be activated at the same time as is a conventional parking light.
The use of running lights on towed vehicles has also increased, largely in step with the rising popularity of boating, camping and other outdoor recreational activities. Most such vehicles include on-board electrical systems for providing, for instance, brake lights and turning signals. These complete on-board electrical systems are controlled by the electrical system of the towing vehicle. For instance, the brake lights of a towed vehicle will activate in sequence with the brake lights of the towing vehicle.
A hard-wired electrical connection is used generally to interface respective electrical systems and to coordinate the lights of separate vehicles. Each of the wiring harnesses have a harness connector with female and/or male terminals in a pin and/or blade configuration in order to establish an electrical connection between the wiring harnesses. The wiring harness of the towed vehicle usually includes an array of male pin terminals for insertion into an array of female pin terminals associated with the wiring harness of the towing vehicle.
With the increased availability and deployment of running lights on vehicles, there exists a continuing need to more efficiently and effectively utilize these and other running lights.